As a bit of fun, I thought it would be good at the start of 2018 to start a up-dated thread on the rarest MECCG cards for collectors (like me). Many years ago the rarest card was discussed (Jap Fury), but what are these cards worth now...

Here are my thoughts on my top 10 (based on the web sites selling cards - especially the awesome Mathom Cards - and the my perceived 'desirability') in reverse order:

#10: The Itlil Stone - English - AtS - Eu 20 (close also are several rare French Promos)

#9: Farmer Maggot - English - AtS - Eu 45

#8: Longbottom Leaf - English - The Balrog - Eu 50

#7: Test of Form (with) - Dutch - Promo - Eu 60

#6: Assassin - Japanese - The Wizards (limited) - Eu 75

#5: Test of Form (without) - Dutch - Promo - Eu 80 (I personally think of this as a miss-print, so maybe not a bonafide card)

#4: The One Ring - Japanese - The Wizards (limited) - Eu 200 (this is where the prices get silly!)

#3: Black Arrow - Japanese - Promo - Eu 250 (!)

#2: Fatty Bolger- Dutch - Promo - Eu 300 (!!)

#1: Fury of the Iron Crown - Japanese - Eu 600+ (!!!!!!!, yes it is maybe still the rarest altough I suspect Dutch Fatty is about the ame in terms of numbers out there).

What do others think?

I am mad enough to pay these prices - what about other people?

The top 4 are impossible to find now I think. I am lucky enough to have 7 of these 10, but may never get the others.

I can't speak to any of the foreign language cards, but I do know it's usually not a good idea to use prices based on out of stock items. The seller often hasn't had additional stock come in for a long while, so they've had no reason to increase the price.

For English cards, would you rank the most highly desired Balrog cards (e.g Longbottom Leaf) more highly than the AtS most highly desired R1s (e.g. Farmer maggot)? This is a difficult one for me.

I can't say for sure, but I believe Longbottom Leaf is a very desirable card for competitive deckbuilding, while the AtS R1s are a lot less playable, and are largely popular because they're hard to find. Because of that, I would put Longbottom Leaf as rarer than the R1s, but someone more experienced with that might be able to correct me.

For English cards, would you rank the most highly desired Balrog cards (e.g Longbottom Leaf) more highly than the AtS most highly desired R1s (e.g. Farmer maggot)? This is a difficult one for me.

Definately. Also, because Balrog has been published in English only. MEAS has also a German and SPanish edition. So at least players are willing to take foreign languages for their decks. This makes Balrog cards even rarer.

I'd also be curious to see the Jabberwock weigh in here, as he convinced me a few months ago that The Ithil-stone is more valuable than Sauron (i.e. not a one-to-one trade). Argument was that you always know you can find a Balrog rare if you pick up a set, which are regularly up for sale (even if they're very expensive). It's extremely hard to find an MEAS R1 regularly up for sale. They do appear occasionally, and more so in the past few months, but I have known there to be very long dry periods when nary a Farmer Maggot or Ithil-stone (e.g.) are to be found. That said, I could also see the argument made that, if you just want say a Longbottom Leaf (and not the rest of the Balrog set), that they're quite difficult to find. It's literally the last card I need for my collection, and so far it's been out of my reach (unless I want to pay an absurd price on Ebay, since there's currently one or two for sale for >USD100).

I'd also be curious to see the Jabberwock weigh in here, as he convinced me a few months ago that The Ithil-stone is more valuable than Sauron (i.e. not a one-to-one trade). Argument was that you always know you can find a Balrog rare if you pick up a set, which are regularly up for sale (even if they're very expensive). It's extremely hard to find an MEAS R1 regularly up for sale. They do appear occasionally, and more so in the past few months, but I have known there to be very long dry periods when nary a Farmer Maggot or Ithil-stone (e.g.) are to be found. That said, I could also see the argument made that, if you just want say a Longbottom Leaf (and not the rest of the Balrog set), that they're quite difficult to find. It's literally the last card I need for my collection, and so far it's been out of my reach (unless I want to pay an absurd price on Ebay, since there's currently one or two for sale for >USD100).

This is a little complicated as the situation is dynamic. As you pointed out, our trade was not 1 for 1. What I said is that there was currently no evidence at the time (our discussion was late May/early June of last year) that Beorning Skin Changers and/or Sauron sold in the $50 range, and that price point was reserved for Longbottom Leaf. I also said (and showed data) of recent AtS R1 sales that had sold in the $50 range as singles. This combined with the fact that Balrog sets did in fact sell several times a year meant that Balrog cards were indeed accessible (albeit expensive). At that time of our conversation, it had been several years since I had seen a complete set of AtS (including R1s) up for sale on eBay in the U.S.A. So the AtS R1s seemed somewhat unattainable. In the past 6 months since that conversation, a couple things have happened:

1) There are a few Balrog sets which have sold higher than their traditional sales values.

2) There have been both complete sets of AtS as well as individual R1s listed on eBay for sale.

As such, I think many of the collector's who were waiting for a Farmer Maggot (or other R1s) were able to complete their sets during the past 6 months. It is too early to tell what (if any) impact this will have on prices and the market. It is also too early to tell if the Balrog set prices that spiked are a temporary increase (several players who desperately wanted a set in the same time frame) OR if those higher prices will maintain and become the new norm.

It is also near-impossible to put an exact price on any card because unlike say Magic the Gathering cards, MECCG singles don't sell every day. So prices can fluctuate quite a bit based on who is looking for a particular card and how badly they want it at any given time.

Hope this adds some color, let me know if there is something I need to explain in more depth.

I can see the point of collecting many of one card - especially if it is a card that really appeals, but would think that there would be very few collectors like this. A

Because the number of collectors of meccg is now small (but also extremely dedicated), this 'farmer hording' could indeed skew the prices up I guess.

The Balrog cards are so expensive, they are almost not worth playing with if you have just one set - they are not easy to replace. By chance I was able to buy 4 of each coloured deck when they came out (a whole display unit), so I never had to worry about getting these ultra expensive cards. I think they were about £15 each when they were in the shops here in the UK.

this does not take into account that some players collect single cards,
Mario "Balrog" Nau-Theisen collects Farmer Maggots and must have 20-30 at least

He has more than 50 but most of them german or spanish.

I think there is also a spanish guy that collects The Ithil-stone. Probably there are more collectors of MEAS R1 cards.
I am not sure, however, if this really has an impact on the availabilty of these cards. How many were printed each? Probably 10,000 or more (I have no clue, honestly speaking).

What is the consensus on the Dutch 'Test of from' without as a genuine card? It seems to me that the card should have had the foil, and that therefore this is effectively a miss-print (and therefore shouldnt be in the top 10)? I have never actually seen this card 'in the flesh' - it is one of the 3 cards here I do not actually own.